This report is
written in response to a letter of authorization dated January 15, 2020, and
aims to advise the Seabin Project team to integrate the recommended
modification to the Seabin as it will play a crucial part in increasing the
adaptability of the product.
Over the years,
the Seabin has been effective in filtering out trash from marinas and ports.
However, the device is still unable to tackle the dangers of microplastics
effectively. As microplastics can travel up the food chain by being ingested by
marine life, these pollutants pose a serious threat to both the human and
marine populations. This report discusses the potential area of enhancements of
the Seabin by introducing adaptations to the current design and how these
adaptations can better equip the device to reduce the microplastic
concentration in our waters.
Through our
research, the team found that the Seabin is heavily reliant on an electrical
power supply to power its suction mechanism, confining the device to places
such as marinas and ports where electricity is readily available. The device is
therefore unable to tackle the dangers of microplastics effectively as the
majority of the marine population that consumes these pollutants is in the
ocean. To tackle these limitations, the team proposes a modification to improve
the Seabin’s adaptability and allow it to have a greater impact on reducing
microplastics in our water bodies.
The proposed
modification is to incorporate an underwater turbine to the Seabin’s design
which will allow the device to be brought offshore, using the waterbody’s
natural tide and current to power the device’s suction mechanism rather than
relying on an electrical socket. Integrating this modification will not only
allow the Seabin to be implemented in the ocean but in any waterbody with an
active current, increasing its adaptability immensely.
Keith Chua
|
Keith
personally feels that working on the modifications for this product is
crucial as the Seabin has so much potential to be the most efficient micro
plastic filtering device on the market. However, due to some limitations and
constraints in its design, the product is unable to deliver its effectiveness
to more parts of the world.
|
Chua Jarl
|
As
a student who pursued a diploma in Clean Energy, Jarl was able to broaden his
knowledge of renewable energy by taking up projects that would benefit the
environment. One such project required him to work in a team to build an
autonomous watercraft that helped to reduce the waste in Singapore’s water
bodies. This is one of the reasons why Jarl felt that this project was the
right fit for him.
|
Jonathan Chan
|
Jonathan
finds this project especially meaningful to him as he loves all sorts of
water sports like surfing and diving. By improving the ocean cleaning devices
currently available in the market, he can do his part in conserving the
marine environment for future generations. Also, with his background in
engineering composites, he will be able to advise the team on the right materials
to be implemented on the project.
|
As stated in the
Seabin Project website (n.d.), the main purpose of the V5 Seabin is to
accomplish the goal of the Seabin team, which is to live in a world where water
pollution is non-existent. The primary function of the V5 Seabin is to remove
waste from calm water bodies. By teaming up with various ports such as Poralu
Marine and Safe Harbour Marina, the Seabin team was able to rapidly distribute
its product to all corners of the earth (Seabin Project, n.d.).
The Seabin is a
microplastic-filtering device that is deployed mainly in marinas and ports to
remove waste from the water body. It is a device “considerably smaller than the
average municipal garbage bin” and can hold a maximum of 20 kg of waste (Hicks,
2018). A submersible water pump that is attached to the Seabin sucks water in
from the surface and as water passes through, any waste larger than 2mm is left
behind in the device’s catch bag. Additionally, the Seabin requires little
attention to maintain it as the catch bag only needs to be emptied as needed.
According to the Seabin Project under its frequently asked questions, the
coating of the device also uses a “non toxic and highly durable anti-fouling system” reducing
its cleaning interval to a period of six to eight weeks.
However, when it comes to the problem of
marine and micro plastics pollution in water bodies, the main complication that
directly affects the ecosystem develops when the wildlife in the waters ingest
micro plastics, one of the three main categories of plastic pollutants. These
micropollutants can rapidly climb up the food chain and be eaten by humans as well.
As the Seabin is currently situated where wildlife is minimal (Seabin Project,
n.d.), its effectiveness in tackling the main problem of micro plastics is
vastly limited.
Seabins are
currently limited to marinas and ports because of its power source. According
to the Seabin’s website (n.d.), the Seabin has to be plugged into a constant
power supply of 110/220V and that the “Maximum distance to an electric energy supply point
is 6 meters”. The current Seabin is limited to areas where a wired power source
is located within the product’s vicinity like marinas and ports. With that
said, by implementing modifications to the power supply of the Seabin, the
Seabin Project can bring its product offshore to rivers or seas where it can
have the highest impact on reducing pollutants on the earth's waters.
An ideal microplastic-filtering device is equipped with an underwater
turbine to make use of the tidal motion to power the suction mechanism and pull
micro-pollutants into an in-built filter, preventing the pollutants from
spilling back out into the waterbody.
However, one of the most viable products currently in the market, the
Seabin, still needs to be permanently plugged into a 110/220V power outlet to
power its suction mechanism (Seabin Project, n.d.) and is thus confined to
places where electricity is readily available such as marinas and ports. With
the implementation of an underwater turbine, the suction mechanism in the
filtering device can be sustained as long as there is a constant current flow
in the water body, allowing devices such as the Seabin to be brought offshore
to remote water bodies in the world.
The purpose of
this report is to advise the Seabin Project team to integrate the recommended
modifications to their products as it will play a crucial part in strengthening
the adaptability of the Seabin.
2.
Current
and Proposed
Solution
The existing Seabin has to be
connected to an electric energy supply point of 110/220V, 500W to operate
(Seabin Project, n.d.). The default Seabin comes with a 6m long electrical
cable and any extension needs to be modified by the user manually. This limits
the Seabin to ports and marinas and vastly reduces its effectiveness. There
have also been trials on adapting Solar panels onto the Seabin to allow the
product to be implemented offshore as seen in Image 1 (Calleja, 2019). However, factors like shading,
instability, battery infrastructure (Ahmad, 2016) and occupancy space make this
solution cumbersome and suboptimal in the long run.
Image
1: Seabin with Solar panel adaptation.
The
team’s proposed solution is to make use of a hydro turbine to power the Seabin.
A hydro turbine produces electricity with the help of the natural tide of the
water (Donev, 2018). As the Seabin is deployed in the water, changing the
source of power to a hydro turbine instead of a power socket would be the ideal
solution. Hydro turbines come in a myriad of sizes and variations, which makes
finding a compatible hydro turbine challenging. The best plan for the Seabin team
would be to design a small prototype, test it and develop it. The final design
would be able to produce 110/220V, anchor the Seabin and run effortlessly
without any major issues. One good example of an ideal solution would be the
use of the SeaUrchin Tidal Turbine, shown in Image 2, to generate power for the Seabin. This product features
two hydro turbines with each turbine generating 2kw of power, which is enough
power to operate four Seabins concurrently.
Image 2: SeaUrchin Tidal Turbine
The SeaUrchin Tidal Turbine will be
attached to the Seabed as shown in the image below, preventing the Seabin from
moving out of the designated space. The power is then transmitted
using waterproof electrical cables that will run from the hydro turbines to the
Seabin. This allows the Seabin to run continuously without the need for a power
socket, increasing its deployability.
Image
3: Illustration of Seabin with adaptation of
Hydro turbines
The incorporation
of an underwater turbine as a power source replacement will significantly
increase the Seabin’s adaptability as it will allow the device to be brought
out of marinas and ports and into seas and other water bodies.
Firstly, having
an underwater turbine means that the device will not have to rely on a power
socket to power its suction mechanism. Rather, it will take advantage of its
environment and use the water body’s tide to generate its own self-sustaining
energy. Drawing energy from the water is also more dependable compared to other
natural sources of energy like solar energy, which is affected by the sun’s
positions, and wind energy, which is unpredictable especially if the device is
deployed in places with no open space. Water is also denser than air, allowing
the underwater turbine to generate the same amount of energy as a windmill “but
at slower speeds and over less area” (Clark, n.d.).
Secondly, the
underwater turbine powering the Seabin is of a small scale and does not require
as much space as a solar panel or windmill as the suction mechanism only
requires “2.5amps @ 500 watts” (Seabin Project, n.d.), making its deployment in
remote locations more convenient. In addition, the small space taken up by the
underwater turbine could allow for multiple devices to be installed in the same
location, increasing the filtration’s area of effect greatly.
The main challenges of adapting a
hydro turbine onto the Seabin are the increase in weight, cost and the
corrosive seawater environment (Ahmad. 2016). The addition of a hydro turbine
with the required power rating would add approximately 57kg (Kojima, 2014) onto the product and as the Seabin
operates at the surface of the water, the increase in weight would require the
Seabin to increase its buoyancy devices in order to remain at the surface of
the water. Harsh sea conditions and the environment is the nemesis of any hydro
turbine as seawater, which is very corrosive, is constantly exerted onto the
moving parts of the hydro-generator like the turbine blades causing the
components to corrode and rust rapidly (Ahmad, 2016). Particles like sand
carried in the water also quickly erode the components in the hydro turbines.
The adaptation of hydro turbines onto the Seabin will definitely increase the
cost of the product. This is because hydro turbine components are relatively
expensive as they have to be durable enough to withstand the harsh sea
conditions.
However, improvements in engineering
composite materials like carbon fiber will help tackle the challenge of the
corrosive seawater conditions and allow underwater turbines to operate even in
low tidal currents, increasing the Seabin’s operational ability once the
turbine has been incorporated into the Seabin’s design. Although this
modification would result in a price increase for the Seabin (estimated 1.5 - 2
times of its current cost), the operational cost of the device as a whole,
which currently runs at 3USD per day (Seabin Project, n.d.), would be
significantly reduced. Additionally, the Seabin would still remain as one of
the most affordable marine cleaning devices available on the market.
The team decided to use secondary research to source information that
is crucial and relevant for the report.
To begin with,
the team decided to use the information found in the Seabin project website as
a reference for elaborating on the benefits and functionality of the Seabin.
Following that, the team used the google search engine to find sources
regarding any modification made onto the Seabin. This would help to show the
efforts made by the Seabin team to improve the current model. Lastly, along
with google search engine, ScienceDirect was also used to source for online
technical reports and articles regarding hydro turbines and its benefits.
As the dangers of
micro plastics continue to grow and with micro pollutants finding more ways to
enter our water bodies, the micro plastic filtering products on the market have
to be just as adaptive as well. Even though the Seabin does not have an area of
effect as large or the adaptive ability as complex as other micro plastic
filtering products, it is still one of the most cost-effective devices on the
market. With the Seabin’s endless modification possibilities, it’s potential to
grow is also immense.
The team believes
that with the incorporation of the underwater turbine, the Seabin will not only
be a groundbreaking micro plastic filtering device but a key solution to the
world’s water pollution problem.
